Dr. Tharoor's dispute with Anupam Kher.

Dr. Tharoor's dispute with Anupam Kher. 
Before I write something, I would like to say that I respect Dr. Tharoor for his lucid writing and education. Extremism in any form also, is an indicator of a closed mind so I agree there as well. But I don't agree with a lot of what he says.
1. He says he wants to bury the hatchet and even after saying that on twitter he writes this blog. Is this a way of burying the hatchet ? I am not so sure.
2. He says all muslims are persecuted because of actions of some and that they are minorities. We live in the real world and although we shouldn't just imitate everyone but also cannot forego everything and just live in a bubble.

•  First, the minorities, in a couple of decades, might become majorities (based on the national data of population percentage).
•  Second I like the proposed idea by Shri Rajiv Malhotra of 'mutual respect'. Extend respect to those that extend respect to you. I am not dead against muslims but even when very young, to whatever major town I went to in my state, the would always be a Masjid RIGHT next to a madir whereever the madir was !! I can say more but I will leave it be. Also, on a more panoramic note, if in a family, one member does something wrong, the whole family is looked down upon morally. I am not debating this as good or bad but it happens. A lot of muslims attack you, it is bound to cause resentment or fear in people ( similar if a lot of extremist Hindus do it !). It is not like renting an apartment came out of the blue for people who just appeared on Earth and don't have an immediate history and long standing history. Dr Tharoor claims that in the lived reality it is tougher for muslims and Christians to be accepted here. Well I encourage anyone to try an experiment on a smaller scale and see if after all this he/she is "accepted with open arms". Try being the master of another (servant's) family for 20yrs and pay them barely enough to survive while giving them an inhumanly heavy workload. Then let them go independent and see if you are welcomed without apprehension. I doubt that will happen. This is just one example. Proselytizing accomplishes a similar goal but with a different process. I also don't want to say all this only from one side and condone everything done by our extremists but I draw the line where the word "Mutual" is omitted from "mutual respect". 

Reading the column above I get the feeling that Dr. Tharoor opines that Hindus are free to choose ( no higher body or rules / priests helping you distinguish   right from wrong), free to display (no obligatory symbols to be worn), free to practice however you wish (reject rituals or customs as you see fit). If everything is so free and nothing is there to distinguish needful from needless then the "Sanghis" (as he claims) are also free to do the same albeit in their own way. But no, when people go to extremes they aren't , to be, that free. Suddenly some unseen rules materialize. I disagree with this notion of Dr. Tharoor that one is free to reject / respect ideas and there are no guiding principles. What I think is that there are principles, in built, which provide the correct guidance and mutual respect to those rules with clarity allow one to traverse the correct path. So a priest or a guru is needed for transmission of the correct knowledge ( a doha of Sant Kabir presented here 'guru govinda dou khade kake laagon paye, Balihari guru aapne Govind diyo bataye'), symbols are needed both as mode of pride in a custom living for 6k years and as protections and symbols of penance one does to uplift an institution and perform one's duties and pay off one's ऋण ie (loans one gets due to birth), and  rituals and customs are quite often a medium of transmitting knowledge to the newer generation and also recollecting, revisiting the high ideals which were used to formulate some of those customs. It is interesting and frankly amusing to see that such a symbiotic relationship with our Dharma is put aside in favor of free but UNIlateral freedom and then the same people decry the sort of extremist results such freedom produce !